Prior to the warm weather - and the rain that came with it - I shoveled snow off the house and garage roofs. Some parts of the roofs seemed to have at least three feet of snow on them. I was concerned when the snow soaked up the rain it all may be too heavy for some roofs.
I shoveled part of the roofs. How much I shoveled was dictated by what I could reach when standing on a step ladder. That mean a little under half the snow from the house roofs and about three-fourths from the garage roof.
I had to shovel the snow twice. Once from the roof to the ground, then from the ground to the snow pile. Moving the snow on the ground was harder as the wet heavy snow had compressed when it hit the ground.
By the time I shoveled the snow it had warmed up into the 30s and the snow was heavy and sticky. The sticky part was more annoying as that meant it stuck to my shovel making it heavier.
My work was worth it as now that the temperature has retreated back below freezing I find that most of the snow I had left on the roof has melted. I see on houses where the snow wasn't shoveled that they still have a blanket of snow, albeit much less than before.
For over a day the driveway was part ice and part lake. The first morning I had slipped on the ice as formerly clear areas had a thin clear layer of ice from the freezing rain overnight before the temperature rose high enough to become just rain. No injuries from the fall except to my pride.
Thankfully before the temperature returned below freezing much of the ice has melted. There still are areas of ice around but the ice is no longer one solid sheet everywhere. With care to avoid the ice I am now able to ride my bicycle to the road.
The snow piles are a lot lower which is nice. For future winter snowfalls I will be able to toss the snow on the piles easier. And with this weather change it broke our string of nonstop snowfalls.
I haven't shoveled new snow since the beginning of the week. So far for the month we have had over 27 inches of snow, and since it began snowing in December we have had 62 inches of snow. Lots of snow. 
After the big melt some of the water remains (under ice), some water ran off, and some water must have gotten absorbed into the ground. I think the ground was frozen less than a half foot prior to all the snow. Such a shallow freeze meant it must have thawed in areas with a large pool of water. Some areas around the valley lost electrical power from falling trees across the power lines when the snow started to melt. With the wet heavy snow and shallow freeze some trees fell over when their roots came out of the ground.
Photo 1: This is what I shoveled from the garage roof before the melting began. There is still a little of that snow left.
Photo 2: I didn't slip on the ice here but left the broom there until that ice did melt.
There is less than half of this ice left.
This warmer weather has got me thinking of Spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment